AEA Technology buys into manufacture

AEA Technology is acquiring the industrial testing and environmental services division of Nycomed Amersham for £16.5m. The Quality and Safety Assurance division provides industrial services such as non-destructive testing and manufactures high-tech equipment – such as systems used to remove static electricity from paintshops – for a range of clients. QSA employs 300 people at […]

AEA Technology is acquiring the industrial testing and environmental services division of Nycomed Amersham for £16.5m.

The Quality and Safety Assurance division provides industrial services such as non-destructive testing and manufactures high-tech equipment – such as systems used to remove static electricity from paintshops – for a range of clients.

QSA employs 300 people at Amersham and sites in Germany, North America and China.

In its last full year, QSA made a £3.9m profit on a £38m turnover. The purchase will take four years to complete over which time AEA will transfer QSA’s work to its laboratories at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

AEA said much of QSA’s technology was complementary to its own and that the acquisition reflected its focus on nuclear science, whereas Nycomed Amersham was concentrating increasingly on diagnostic medical imaging and biotechnology.

AEA currently sells technology to QSA for much of the equipment QSA makes. The move in effect gives AEA a manufacturing division.